MOUNT MERON, Israel—At least 44 people were crushed to death at an over-crowded religious bonfire festival in Israel on Friday, medics said, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “heavy disaster”. The crush occurred as tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews thronged to the Galilee tomb of 2nd-century sage Rabbi Shim Bar Yochai for annual Lag B’Omer commemorations that include all-night prayer, mystical songs and dance. Witnesses said people were asphyxiated or trampled in a tightly packed passageway, some going unnoticed until the PA system sounded an appeal to disperse, as crowds packed the Mount Meron slope in defiance of COVID-19 warnings. Helicopters ferried injured people to hospitals and the military said search-and-rescue troops were scrambled. Medics said 103 people had been injured in what they described as a stampede. Casualties included children, witnesses said. The site is mostly gender-segregated and bystander video suggested the crush took place …